General History

Allan Lockheed and Jack Northrop teamed up together in 1927 and formed the Lockheed Aircraft Company.  It was a great combination and their Vega became the aircraft of the Golden Age for setting records.  Names like Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart and Roscoe Turner furthered the reputation of the aircraft as well as their own.  Wiley Post set many records in Vega, the “Winnie Mae”.  Post was the first person to set a round-the-world record with a commercial aircraft.  He made the first solo flight around the globe, was the first person to fly New York to Berlin nonstop and also set an un-official world altitude record of 55,000 feet.  All in the Winne Mae.  Amelia Earhart was the first woman to solo across the Atlantic and did so in a bright red Vega.  A total of 198 Vega’s were built.

Personal History

This aircraft was acquired from Dave Jameson in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and was the 72^nd Vega off the production line.  Originally purchased in 1929 by the Independent Oil & Gas Company, it was the first executive model built and sported a table, portable typewriter, and a chemical toilet.  During World War II it served as an airliner in Mexico and was used in the late 1950’s by General Electric as a radar research aircraft.

Dave purchased it in 1963 and restored it in the colors of the Winnie Mae.  He flew it for a number of years before putting on display in the E.A.A. Museum in Oshkosh.  It had not flown for about 7 years when Kermit purchased it in 1991. It was disassembled and shipped to Fantasy of Flight.  The current engine in this aircraft is a later version of the original engine that has considerably more power.  Plans are to get an earlier original engine overhauled and one day get the aircraft flying again.  This is only 1 of less than 5 known original Vega’s left in existence.  The original Wiley Post Winnie Mae and the Amelia Earhart Vega are both owned by the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. 

Kermit Comment

The structure of this airplane is all wood.  The fuselage was molded in halves and glued together.  Other aircraft designs by Lockheed used the same basic fuselage but the configuration and model type determined where the cockpit and door openings were cut.   The high-wing version was the Lockheed Vega, the parasol was the Lockheed Orion and the low-wing was the Lockheed Sirius.